Mac 101: Eject a stuck disc

Now that the holidays are approaching, you'll probably be asked to service your relatives' computers. "You like computers, right? Will you take a look at this for me?" Prepare yourself, it's coming.

Some fixes are easy, including the stuck disc. It can happen for a variety of reasons that we won't go into here. After all, when the Titanic is sinking, you don't stop to yell at the iceberg. So let's just eject the disc.

The fix is simple. After trying the obvious (hit the eject key, drag the disc into the trash), restart the machine and as it starts up, hold down the mouse button (or trackpad button if the offending Mac is a laptop). The disc should now eject as the Mac continues to start up. If not, you may have optical drive issues to worry about. But chances are you'll get mom's extended edition Murder, She Wrote DVD ejected safe and sound.

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Now that the holidays are approaching, you'll probably be asked to service your relatives' computers. "You like computers, right? Will you...

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Xjimjimx

I very often miss the paperclip hole.....
On my G4, I ended up drilling a hole straight through the front panel.

January 06 2010 at 5:17 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

jackbush316

Useful.

December 16 2009 at 5:50 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

brian

shut up

December 16 2009 at 2:09 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to brian's comment

brian

-that was in response to spam that has since been removed, making me look like a jerk.. the whole thread should have been deleted

December 16 2009 at 7:48 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

bikeham

After getting stuck disks far too often on my aging 2007 iMac, I learnt to quickly dismantle the iMac and open the optical drive. Thanks to ebay and a supplier in Hong Kong, I was able to replace the drive for less than a third of the quoted repair cost from Apple.

I hope I don't have to do it every two years, otherwise an external drive may be the answer.

December 15 2009 at 4:53 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

John

I had a stuck disk for 6 months -- tried everything above. Finally solved it.
I put double stick tape on a knife -- I then slid the knife into the drive -- pushed sticky side down to the top of the cd - and pulled. It came right out. Then -- out came a second disk on it's own. (Dang kids forcing Hannah Montana on top of the Usual Suspects.)

December 15 2009 at 4:25 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to John's comment

brian

you saved yourself from an awkward genius bar visit.

December 16 2009 at 2:07 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

kherge

Troll bait I know, but just for the readers:

Not being able to eject a CD/DVD on Mac is not a bug. What happens when you accidentally eject a disc that you're installing an app from or copying files from? You start over. If you're copying 4GB of data off of a DVD, that would suck.

Ejecting is disabled with the operation system detects that it is in use. And it doesn't only apply to optical disks, but to mounted file systems as well.

December 15 2009 at 3:59 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Edward Patel

A couple of times when I got a CD/DVD stuck I have successfully ejected them by using a menu-extra that can be found in CoreServices.

/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/Eject.menu

December 15 2009 at 3:30 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

mannyv

You can also hit the option key to get to the EFI boot and eject from there, if I remember correctly.

December 15 2009 at 2:36 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to mannyv's comment

Connie

Yes, you're right. I've used this a couple of times over the years. Just boot the MacBook, holding down the Option key, and when the MacBook disk icon appears, press the [Eject] button on the computer. Out the disk will pop.....

December 16 2009 at 5:27 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

urth

good 'advice' not recommended but the physically stopping the disc if stuck spinning does work, too. paper in slot to brake disk.

but why does it get stuck, and it has happened to probably every apple product consumer/operator?

December 15 2009 at 2:33 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

kherge

Alternative to ejecting stuck disk without rebooting, open Terminal and enter the following:

sudo umount -f /Volumes/NAME OF CD OR DVD

Type in your password and you should now be able to eject.

December 15 2009 at 2:31 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply